Sheehan stars at Sandown in Jockeys’ Cup pursuit

Victories aboard Gunsight Ridge and O’Connell at Sandown ensured that Gavin Sheehan was the star jockey on Saturday as the Irish rider secured 24 points in his bid to become the inaugural David Power Jockeys’ Cup champion. 

That moved him closer to the lead, but he remains in sixth place, albeit closer to the current tally of fifth-placed Sean Bowen who was in action at Wetherby. 

Towards the top of the Jockeys’ Cup leaderboard, reigning Champion Jockey Harry Cobden picked up 18 points thanks to placed efforts on Just Lucky Sivola and Henri The Second. That moved him into second place ahead of Sam Twiston-Davies who was out of luck on his only ITV ride of the day.

David Noonan also achieved the same tally of points on Saturday, primarily due to the Scottish County Hurdle success of Welsh Charger, though he has plenty of ground to make up on the current leader Harry Skelton. 

Skelton was able to add six points to his total, and he now tops the standings on 238 points. 

Ben Jones secured 10 points thanks to the success of Handstands in a thrilling renewal of the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase, though made up no ground on Charlie Deutsch – who is one place above him – due to Deutsch’s earlier win on Sole Solution.